Anyone notice before the add-on below the drive unit. I have the suspicion that in the eventual case of a dead floppy disk drive unit, you replace the upper unit with a PeeCee 3.5"-1.44MB floppy drive, maybe you could bring such a unit floating again.

Am I wrong?

I have to try it soon. The unit from the above is a dead one; I don't know if the problem lies on the lower FDD-to-SCSI adapter card, or just on the drive itself. I really hope that it can be only the second case.

nekonoko wrote:Might work - the SGI floppy has an eject motor in it that most PC floppies lack. Probably not that important though.

Hello Neko;

well, this one does not includes an eject motor. I guess your really refer to the ones included with Indigo/Indy, on which you get a second servo to help the disk ejection. This one was pulled out from an original (gray marble) external box from SGI. Their carton box was labeled:

"O2/Octane External Floppy Disk Drive Unit"

On a side note, since it was not the only one that I've purchased brand-new, in closed original carton box, you can read almost the same for the newer model, the black one with the Imation LS120 - SuperDrive:

"O2/Octane External Super-Disk Drive Unit"

This one supports both formats: 3.5"-120MB Imation cartridges, and standard 3.5"-1.44MB floppy disks. And this one includes ejection motor, same as the Indy's InSite drive, and older SCSI floppies from SGI, as the one on Indigo.

What do you think about those five jumpers at the top of my unit? I've never seen jumpers on a PeeCee related floppy drive... That's my only doubt by now. Right now I'm expecting the supplies-guy, which has to bring me on his motorcycle the brand-new PeeCee drive to try!

I have used that exact model of TEAC floppy drive before. I don't recall what the jumpers do down to the letter, but they are for drive IDs, setting read-only status, and what disk formats they will take, like Floppy 3-mode.

It's a standard PC drive as far as that goes. There's not much that can be done to complicate a floppy drive.

MisterDNA wrote:I have used that exact model of TEAC floppy drive before. I don't recall what the jumpers do down to the letter, but they are for drive IDs, setting read-only status, and what disk formats they will take, like Floppy 3-mode.

It's a standard PC drive as far as that goes. There's not much that can be done to complicate a floppy drive.

GeneratriX wrote: well, this one does not includes an eject motor. I guess your really refer to the ones included with Indigo/Indy, on which you get a second servo to hep the disk ejection.

Alrighty, your picture looks much the same as the TEAC FC-1 in my Indigo which has soft eject (aside from the dust!). I actually have three TEAC FC-1s now - they seem to come in every Indigo I pick up The upper drive mechanism in mine is FD-235HF.

Nekonoko wrote:Alrighty, your picture looks much the same as the TEAC FC-1 in my Indigo which has soft eject (aside from the dust!).

Very interesting, Neko! Seems that these difference with the suffix has a strong reason to be... ahhh, no problem with the dust; the dust is the second's computer escence!

Nekonoko wrote:I actually have three TEAC FC-1s now - they seem to come in every Indigo I pick up

Any chance to buy one or more of those from you? Right now I need a couple more units! Also, no problem on customs for such kind of spares. Anyway, I'll understand if you want to collect those drives for later use.

nekonoko wrote:I can part with one of them - I want to keep two complete Indigos up and running, by my third is pretty much for parts.

Cool, Neko!; I'll sent you a P.M. once my customer can answer my latest mail, then you can tell me how much you want for the unit, and of course, the shipping costs to Argentine. These guy will need a few of those units soon. I can manage to get more of them from another source, hence no problem at all. Thanks in advance! Regards,
Diego

Check out the VAX/DECstation/early Alpha people- can't remember where I saw the info, but I think that DEC used this same setup on some of their desktop boxes. Somewhere there are replacement hints for FDDs that work.

Hello Nicte; you could also want to check if the scsi-fdd converter is in real working order, since I've noticed that most part of the times, fdd drive and converter are equally fried... or at least I was out of luck with mines.

Yeah... no matter which brand of PeeCee floppy drive tried here, none of them worked with the SGIś original converter board. Only solution: you must find an identical drive in working order; then you can start some experimentations... but you'll risk the good one! Good luck,
Diego

Fyi for future searchers like myself... this scsi adapter *can't* work with standard pc floppy drives (without modification?) for a simple reason... neither the standard floppy pinout nor SCSI supply 5v for power..This drive is definitely funky despite its standardish teac part number... three pins usually used with ground (?) carry 5v to the scsi board.